You may recall Georgia’s Republican candidate for governor, Karen Handel, recently said gay people were unfit parents and not legitimate. This morning Family Equality Council responded to Ms. Handel in an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Jenn Chrisler and Ken Manford penned the piece inviting Handel to dinner. Twelve thousand children are in the [...]

Listed below are some of the fun events you have to look forward to at Family Week. For more information, please visit www.familyequality.org. Kick-Off Games All families are welcome! Come join us for the first official event of the week! Start your vacation by relaxing and mingling with other families at Crown & Anchor. This is the [...]

Comprehensive Immigration Reform This Year! All Families, Gay and Straight, Must be Included! We invite you to join Congressman Mike Honda, Bishop Minerva Carcaño, and families impacted by our broken immigration system on a call designed for activists and concerned community members like you. Hear how YOU can press Congress to act now! Conference Call [...]

The New York Times ran a series of op-eds about LGBT families by Dan Savage, Kate Aurthur, Stephanie Coontz, Lynn Spigel and John McWhorter. Check out all of the installments here.

The vignette below is part of Family Equality Council’s “Family Matters,” a storytelling series that highlights an LGBT family each week.  Here is Peter in California, in his own words. We are a married gay couple in Los Angeles with a 5-year-old son. We have been a couple for 25 years, but could only legally marry in [...]

We are proud to announce that Kara Suffredini, Family Equality’s Director of Public Policy and Community Engagement, has been selected as one of the “Best LGBT Attorneys Under 40” by the National LGBT Bar Association. This award recognizes the best and brightest young LGBT attorneys “who have distinguished themselves in their field and demonstrated a [...]

Family Equality Council is launching "Family Voices," a storytelling series that highlights an LGBT family each week. Here is our first installment from Clio, in her own words.

Karen Handel, a Republican candidate for governor in Georgia, told a local TV station (video below and here) she’s against marriage equality and supports outlawing gay adoption. Reporter: Would you favor outlawing gay adoptions? Handel: Yeah, I would consider that, absolutely. Reporter: Do you know any gay couples with children? Handel: Not that I’m aware of. Reporter: So you think [...]

The conservative Washington Times refused to publish our letter to the editor responding to the paper’s silly editorial on the traditional family. So, we’re publishing it here. Much more to come in our renewed effort to push back on the conservative media machine.– Kevin In its recent editorial (“Obama’s war on the traditional family”), the [...]

We sent this action alert to Family Equality members yesterday. Take a minute to check out our Action Center to kick start the DOMA discussion in Washington.–Kevin Your family is particularly important in the wake of the federal court’s ruling in Massachusetts last week that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. Although the Obama administration is expected [...]

That’s how much money we the taxpayers spent on an utterly homophobic “survey” of U.S. troops to gauge their views—and those of their families—on “Don’t Ask, Don’ Tell.” You have got to be kidding. Politico: The Pentagon, which tried to keep the $4.5 million survey from public release, is defending it against “inflammatory” news [...]

Check out this great editorial in today’s LA Times. It places a much-needed focus on the issue of childrearing and parenting in the DOMA debate: What is the rational basis for laws that deprive gay and lesbian couples of the right to wed? The arguments that have emerged so far — that same-sex marriage is bad [...]

Today the U.S. District Court for the First Circuit found Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional and found that married same-sex couples in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are entitled to the same federal spousal benefits and protections as other married couples. The lawsuit, Gill et al v. Office of Personnel [...]

Last month, the Department of Labor issued a new interpretation of the Family Medical Leave Act. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis explained what this new interpretation means in an op-ed in The Advocate. “[The] Labor Department’s interpretation of the FMLA makes clear that children can get the support and care they need from the people who love [...]

Our pal Kate Clinton does a video promo for Family Week coming up July 31. You can sign up here if you haven’t already. Thanks Kate!

DC residents know that the National Organization for Marriage is walking the streets of our nation’s capital handing out leaflets urging residents to vote this fall against our local officials who support marriage equality. The flyer reads, “Children do best when raised by both a mother and a father. Last year eleven members of the DC [...]

The New York Times reported this morning that Google has decided to cover the cost that gay and lesbian employees must pay when their partners receive domestic partner health benefits, largely to compensate them for an extra tax that heterosexual married couples do not pay. The increase will be retroactive to the beginning of the year. [snip] On average, [...]

This may be the best summer yet for interns at FEC. We asked each intern to write a short post about who they are and why they decided to come intern for us. These really are worth a read. –Kevin Liv Pangburn I hope to be a parent in a world that can accept me as a [...]

I want to share this article published on CNN.com last week with all the moms out there who agree our child’s well being comes first–-and that good parents come in many forms. No one family is better than any other. Please re-post to Facebook, Tweet, or send to other moms (and dads) if you like [...]

A lesbian couple in Wisconsin adopted two children from Guatemala years ago. One of the women, Liz, adopted the children individually because Wisconsin prohibits two parents of the same-sex from both having a legal relationship to their children. As the legal parent, Liz could put the children on her health plan. When the couple’s relationship [...]